Portable stand adapted for tree mounting

ABSTRACT

A portable stand is disclosed particularly adapted for use by hunters and naturalists, the stand being removably mountable upon trees and having spaced beams which are adjustable to embrace trees of different sizes. The stand is further provided with spaced supporting legs which are adjustable in both length and angular disposition in order to adapt the stand to the trunk or branches of trees of various shapes. The stand is arranged for convenient erection and collapse, so that it may readily be transported from place to place.

United States Patent 1 Meyer 1 1 July 31, 1973 [54] PORTABLE STANDADAPTED FOR TREE 857,203 6/1907 Randall 182/187 MOUNTING 3,396,8188/1968 Moragne n 182/187 [76] Inventor: Leonard S. Meyer, 6449Bridgewood Rd., Columbia, S.C. 29026 [22] Filed: Feb. 24, 1972 [21]Appl. No.: 229,116

[52] US. Cl. 182/187 [51] Int. Cl A47g 9/10 [58] Field 01 Search182/187, 121, 122,

[56] Relerences Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,833,333 5/1958 Babineau182/187 1,004,284 9/1911 Lehmann..... 182/121 2,425,025 8/1947Boisselier 182/129 1,759,966 5/1930 Swinney 182/187 PrimaryExaminer-Reinaldo P. Machado Attorney-Synnestvedt & Lechner [57]ABSTRACT A portable stand is disclosed particularly adapted for use byhunters and naturalists, the stand being removably mountable upon treesand having spaced beams which are adjustable to embrace trees ofdifferent sizes. The stand is further provided with spaced supportinglegs which are adjustable in both length and angular disposition inorder to adapt the stand to the trunk or branches of trees of variousshapes. The stand is arranged for convenient erection and collapse, sothat it may readily be transported from place to place.

3 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PATENTEU JUL 3 I I973 SHEET 2 [IF 2 PORTABLESTAND ADAPTED FOR TREE MOUNTING This invention relates to a portablestand especially adapted for tree mounting, the stand being providedwith a platform on which hunters or naturalists may stand or sit at adesired elevation above the ground.

One of the major objectives of the invention is to provide a portablestand of the kind above referred to, conveniently adjustable to adaptthe stand to mounting upon trees of different shapes and sizes, with thetrunk and/or branches extended at any of a variety of different angles.

A further object of the invention is to provide a stand of the kindreferred to which is capable of ready mounting or erection in remote orisolated areas without the use of special tools and with a minimum ofnoise, these characteristics being of importance particularly forhunters.

Another object of the invention is to provide a portable stand which isnot only readily erected, but which may also be taken down and collapsedthereby providing for convenient transport of the stand from one site toanother.

It is also an objective of the invention to provide for theinterconnection of all parts of the stand in a unitary assembly when thestand is collapsed, so that all parts are retained in association witheach other when the stand is being transported from one site to another.

A further object of the invention is to provide for convenient mountingof camouflage elements such as branches or twigs of the trees on whichthe stand is mounted, and to provide for support of arrows in posi tionsconveniently accessible to an archer using the stand.

How the foregoing and other objects and advantages are attained,together with others which will occur to those skilled in the art, willbe clear from the following description referring to the accompanyingdrawings illustrating a preferred embodiment of the invention, and inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a portable'platform according to the invention,the stand being shown mounted upon a tree trunk, the tree trunk beingshown in horizontal section in this figure;

FIG. 2 is an elevational view of the platform and tree trunk shown inFIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary detailed view of the connection of oneof the supporting legs to the platform;

FIG. 4 is a view of the platform in collapsed condition ready fortransport;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 2, but illustrating the mounting of theplatform on the trunk ofa tree inclined at a substantial angle to thevertical; and

FIG. 6 is a view of the mounting of the platform in still anothermounting situation where the legs of the platform engage branches of atree.

The portable stand illustrated in the drawings comprises a platform 7.Although the platform may be formed of a variety of materials, exteriorgrade plywood is appropriate, and it is desirably painted for instance adull black. The platform is provided with certain apertures forconnection of other parts, as will be explained and if desired may alsobe provided with a number of lightening holes 8. The platform isdesirably covered with some rug type of covering indicated at 9. Thiscovering may be adhesivcly applied and serves to obstruct view throughthe lightening holes, to prevent noise from movement of the users feeton the platform, and to provide some degree of comfort or warmth if theuser sits.

For the purpose of mounting the stand, a pair of beams 10,10 isprovided, each beam being pivotally connected with the platform by abolt indicated at ll. The beams may be formed in any of a number of waysfor instance by interconnecting two pieces of wood, for instanceplywood. It will be observed that the bolts 11 serve to connect the endsof the beams to the platform toward one edge thereof and that the beamsextend from the point of connection under the platform with the other orfree ends of the beams projecting beyond the opposite edge of theplatform in order to embrace a tree on which the stand is to be mounted,for instance the trunk 12 of a tree as indicated in FlGS. l and 2. Eachbeam is adapted to be secured to the tree by means ofa manuallyinsertable screw such as indicated at 13. This may be a large screw orlog bolt having an eye or other enlargement at the head end forconvenient manual insertion. The beams 10 are provided with a series ofspaced holes in any one of which the fastening screw 13 may be insertedand, in this way, the beams may readily be fastened to tree trunks ofdifferent diameters.

The support for the platform further includes a pair of legs indicatedgenerally at 14,14. Moreover, each leg is desirably made of upper andlower leg pieces 15 and 16 formed of any desired material for instance,either wood or metal, and each having a series of apertures 17 which maybe brought into registry with each other in different axial positions sothat the effective length of each leg may be adjusted. In any adjustposition, the legs are secured to each other by means of bolts 18 havingwing nuts 19 associated therewith. At its lower end each leg is providedwith a spike or pointed element 20 adapted to be partially inserted intothe trunk or other part of the tree on which the legs are to besupported.

At its upper end each leg 14 is connected by means of a horizontal bolt21 to a bracket 22, so that the leg may freely swing about thehorizontal axis of the bolt 21 as a pivot. The bracket 22 in turn isconnected with one of the beams 10 by means of the bolt 11 serving toattach that beam to the platform 7. The bolt 11 serves also to providean upright pivot axis for the associated leg 14 as well as for theassociated beam 10. In this way each leg is provided with freedom forswinging motion not only in a vertical plane (about the axis of bolt21), but also in a horizontal plane (about the axis of the upper rightbolt 11). Thus, the legs are adjustable in length and also universallyadjustable with respect to their angular position, and in this wayprovision is made for mounting of the stand upon the trunk and/or limbsof trees of a variety of shapes and sizes.

The beams 10 may, if desired, be retained in the adjusted angularpositions by means of bolts 23 provided with wing nuts 24 these boltsbeing extended through the beams and also through slotted apertures inthe platform as indicated at 25.

Sockets or slots such as shown at 26 in FIG. 1 may be provided in eachbeam, these sockets serving to receive arrowheads of arrows being usedby an archer standing upon the platform. For the purpose of providingthese sockets the beams 10 may be apertured and the apertures may belined with plastic or resin insets providing a frictionalinterengagement with the arrowheads to maintain the arrows in standingor upright position, while at the same time permitting easy withdrawalof the arrowhead from the slot. The positioning of these arrowheadsockets in the beams in the region where the beams project from theplatform toward the tree on which the stand is mounted, so locates thesockets, and thus also the arrows mounted thereby, (see portion of arrowindicated at 27 in FlG. 2) so that the arrows are convenientlyaccessible to an archer standing upon the platform.

A number of holes or apertures 28 may be provided along the side edgesof the platform to receive branches, twigs or other camouflagematerials.

For security a cord or rope 29 is desirably threaded through aperturesin the legs 14 and tied around the tree in order to preventunintentional dislodgment of the spikes 20 from engagement with thetree.

When the stand of the invention is demounted, it may readily becollapsed to a condition represented in FlG. 4 in which the legs 14 areswung into substantial parallelism with the beams 10 and thus also withthe platform 7. Both the beams and the legs are then swung toward eachother and the cord 29 which may be employed in the manner describedabove with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 may then be threaded throughapertures at the corners of the platform and through the apertured headsof the lock bolts 13, the bolts for this purpose, being inserted throughapertures at the ends of the beams 10 as is shown in FIG. 4. A portionof the cord 29 may also be threaded through apertures in the legs 14, asis indicated. An intermediate portion of the cord 29 may also bethreaded through a series of apertures in the arcuate shoulder strip 30,thereby providing a convenient harness for carrying the stand on theshoulder without the necessity for any other handling, during transportfrom one site to another.

FlGS. 5 and 6 illustrate two alternative mounting arrangements for thestand. In FIG. 5 the tree trunk 31 is shown as being inclinedsubstantially from the vertical, but notwithstanding this inclination,it will be seen that the beams 10 and the legs 14 are readily adaptableto the mounting of the stand with the platform in substantiallyhorizontal position.

In the alternative mounting illustrated in FIG. 6 the tree trunk 32 isshown as having branches 33 and 34 extended at different angles from thetrunk, and here also the flexibility of the leg arrangement readilyadapt the stand to this mounting situation.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the invention provides a standhaving a substantially universal mounting facility. The operationsrequired to erect the stand and also to remove it from a given site mayall be accomplished by hand without the necessity for hammering. Thestand is sturdy and yet of light weight and quite capable of beinginstalled quickly under a variety of site conditions.

I claim:

1. A portable stand adapted to be removably mounted on trees, comprisinga platform, a pair of spaced platform supporting beams with one end ofeach beam connected with the platform toward one side thereof andextended from the point of connection under the platform, and with theother or free ends of the pair of beams projecting beyond the platformto embrace a tree on which the stand is to be mounted, the connection ofthe beams with the platform including pivot means providing forvariation in the spacing of the free ends of the beams to embrace treesof different sizes, and platform supporting means comprising a pair oflegs extended downwardly from the platform the legs being connected withthe platform by said pivot means with freedom for swinging movementabout upright axes to adapt the legs to trees of various shapes andsizes.

2. A stand as defined in claim 1 and further including adjustable meansfor fastening the beams to the platform with the beams in differentpivotal positions.

3. A portable stand adapted to be removably mounted on trees, comprisinga platform, a pair of spaced platform supporting beams with one end ofeach beam connected with the platform toward one side thereof andextended from the point of connection under the platform, and with theother or free ends of the pair of beams projecting beyond the platformto embrace a tree on which the stand is to be mounted and platformsupporting legs extended downwardly therefrom to engage a tree, the legsbeing adjustable in both length and angular disposition in two planeswith respect to the platform to adapt the legs to trees of variousshapes and sizes and the beams and legs being connected with theplatform by common pivot joints:

* i l i

1. A portable stand adapted to be removably mounted on trees, comprisinga platform, a pair of spaced platform supporting beams with one end ofeach beam connected with the platform toward one side thereof andextended from the point of connection under the platform, and with theother or free ends of the pair of beams projecting beyond the platformto embrace a tree on which the stand is to be mounted, the connection ofthe beams with the platform including pivot means providing forvariation in the spacing of the free ends of the beams to embrace treesof different sizes, and platform supporting means comprising a pair oflegs extended downwardly from the platform the legs being connected withthe platform by said pivot means with freedom for swinging movementabout upright axes to adapt the legs to trees of various shapes andsizes.
 2. A stand as defined in claim 1 and further including adjustablemeans for fastening the beams to the platform with the beams indifferent pivotal positions.
 3. A portable stand adapted to be removablymounted on trees, comprising a platform, a pair of spaced platformsupporting beams with one end of each beam connected with the platformtoward one side thereof and extended from the point of connection underthe platforM, and with the other or free ends of the pair of beamsprojecting beyond the platform to embrace a tree on which the stand isto be mounted and platform supporting legs extended downwardly therefromto engage a tree, the legs being adjustable in both length and angulardisposition in two planes with respect to the platform to adapt the legsto trees of various shapes and sizes and the beams and legs beingconnected with the platform by common pivot joints.